‏Royce Christyn‏

Royce Christyn is a ground breaking film producer, actor, writer and director. Christyn is not defined by just these things, as he continues to successfully open doors and smash boundaries in all realms of media, activism, and entertainment.Born Matthew Smith in Philadelphia and hailing originally from Marlton, New Jersey, Christyn's passion and drive to be in the entertainment industry began at age five with local community theater classes and productions.Starring roles in Neil Simon's "Lost In Yonkers", a reboot of the Obie Award winning "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You," and "The Sound of Music" launched him into national tours and leading roles in major theater productions in and around the New York City area.In 2005, Royce Christyn moved to Los Angeles when he was 16 years old after being spotted by several well respected talent agencies and managers. He immediately found success on such hit teen comedies as Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh" and "Zoey 101," which starred now country star Jamie Lynn Spears (the younger and equally talented sister of Britney Spears).Christyn is perhaps best well known in the acting world from his portrayal of "Manny", Selena Gomez's "magic made" boyfriend on the Emmy Award winning Disney Channel Original Series "Wizards of Waverly Place".Royce Christyn is an advocate for human rights and environmental issues. He was the keynote speaker, along with his non profit organization Project Gulf Impact, at Netroots Nation 2010 in Las Vegas, and spent much of 2010 and 2011 traveling the country to speak and produce documentary films.In 2011, he co-founded the ground-breaking all-media production company, Real Stream Productions, where he produced films, commercials, and documentaries.One of his proudest accomplishments is his documentary film, "Out In The Open," which Christyn wrote and directed. The film was wildly successful and sits as one of the top LGBT documentary films of all time.Released in early 2013, the film stars Royce and his fiancé Solly Hemus, and well known figures such as Carson Kressley, Greg Louganis, and Eric Roberts. "Out In The Open" is regularly featured on various media platforms, and is frequently aired on major cable networks such as "HERE! TV".He is the first Disney Channel celebrity to come out as a gay man publicly. Part of his decision to come out was based on the fact that his appearances on The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon rank among some of the most viewed of all time, reaching close to 1 billion people worldwide, and he, being in the public eye, believes he can help others by being his true self.Over the course of 2014, Christyn started to focus on his writing, releasing his first novel, "Eigengrau," and freelance writing for the wildly successful news site "YourNewsWire.com".In 2015, he now writes for three national publications in addition to his continued contributions to online news sites such as YourNewsWire.com.He is in pre-production on a new LGBT geared TV show as well as two new genre-bending documentaries - one of which will be a follow-up, but not a sequel, to "Out In The Open".Christyn is focusing heavily on his work in the publishing, content producing, and acting worlds. Christyn has recently said: "Blending all forms of media and content creation is my passion - it's the future and I am grateful to be alive and where I am today. I am ready for an incredible few years ahead and I welcome every opportunity not only for myself, but also to being a voice and face for issues I am passionate about."